We trekked out to Long Island Retro Gaming Expo a few weekends ago to regale a live audience with the history of one of the most influential series that Americans barely know about: Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer. A loosely grouped "franchise," Dragon Slayer games may share common elements from entry to entry, but as a whole there is no single overarching mechanic, character, plot line, or other element that binds them all together. And not a single one of the handful that have made their way outside of Japan have shown up over here with the name Dragon Slayer attached. And yet, the series has had an enormous impact on RPGs and games in general among Japanese developers. It's just one of those things.

Kurt Kalata and Rob Russo of Hardcore Gaming 101 joined us for this episode, because HG101 hosts the most comprehensive English-language examination of the Dragon Slayer games I've yet seen. Maybe this wasn't the ideal topic for a live panel, but when else were we going to have a chance to pick the brains of two people who actually know a lot about Dragon Slayer? The conversion turned out pretty well (even if the audio wasn't the best it could be, as is usually the case for live presentations), and in the end, that's what really matters.

Episode description: Fresh from Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, Jeremy and Bob yield the floor to Kurt Kalata and Rob Russo from Hardcore Gaming 101 to explain the history of Falcom's Dragon Slayer series — just in time for the PS4 debut of the latest spinoff, Tokyo Xanadu.